Friday, March 19, 2010

Work - RL

wow! It's been over a month since I posted! It's been quite a month, good and bad and VERY STRESSFUL. I wanted to share with you a little something from my RL job.

I had a customer yesterday. She came in saying that she had been told by name in California to get coral. (coral what? thread, hemming tape, trim, fabric) I guessed fabric.me: What kind? cotton, wool, polyester, linen, silk, spandex - a knit, a satin? her: I don't care.me: Is the color more important or the fabric (thinking which department is the most likely to have coral? that would be mine - name a color and I probably have it in a solid colored cotton - over 200 choices) her: the colorI did not discover that was the wrong answer until after I lead her on a sweep of the shop. She approached me in the quilt department, so we looked at cotton, linen, silk, polyester. I had discovered it was for a dress; they can all be used for dresses. She was one of the least informative customers I have encountered. It is amazing how many of them expect you to know what they want when they give you almost nothing to base that knowledge upon. Finally I dug out of her that it was for a wedding.me: for you? her: no, I'm the bride. (looking at me like I wasn't paying attention)me: for your bridesmaids? her: yes (other options: flower girls, mothers, sponsors, junior bridesmaids)

It would have helped if she walked up to me and simply said I am getting married and my maid of honor wants the bridesmaids to wear coral.

Then like many other people, she told me she wanted a particular fabric that she has seen. No content, no swatch, no name, no picture. I asked for a description. hmmm....If she had told me immediately that she wanted a coral fabric with another color running through it (gold), I could have lead her to the bridal/special occasion department and shown her the two bolts that fit that description. No, this was at least 15 minutes later. I called Wayne to the department, and turned her over to him. He really doesn't have as much patience as I give him credit for, however it was someone else's turn, mine had run out.

Oy. I've been there. As in, I lease apartments for a living. Today a fellow comes in, and when I ask what he wants, size, location, features, etc., he says, "One bedroom. Nothing else really matters to me."

So... I show him some. In the course of going from apartment to apartment with him, I'm able to establish that he wants:

Top floor,Big bedroom (he has a king mattress),and price under $1000 (not impossible in this area, but not common either.)

Now, if he'd told me these things in the office, we'd both have saved at least half an hour of our day, but it seems actually communicating needs concisely is beyond some people. The capper? After showing him several and eliminating one after another...

He: "Don't you have any without connecting walls?"

Me: "Ah, no... I'm afraid all of them will have at least one connecting wall."

He: "Well, I don't want anything with a connecting wall."

For anyone who hasn't been paying attention, there's a name for an apartment without any connecting walls. It's called a HOUSE.